Teaching as an act: Lacan and philosophy of education

Abstract The bureaucratic dimension of teaching has increased. Because contemporary education prioritizes goal-orientated learning, teaching has been reduced to a homogenized and statistical model of social practice (a sort of socio-mania). But what is at stake in teaching today? Can it count as an exceptional human experience rather than a mere performative action? In this article, I draw on an introductory reading of Jacques Lacan’s texts to reveal a crucial dimension of teaching (whether at the primary, secondary, or university level): the relationship between truth, knowledge, and the Real. With the help of two contemporary French philosophers, Alain Badiou and Jean-Pierre Cléro, I develop the hypothesis that teaching as a human experience embodies an articulation of truth and knowledge, claiming that the Real is something that cannot be completely said. In this sense, teaching is an action criss-crossed by an act—it is something we do at the unconscious level (without really knowing what it is that we know), and which needs an interpretation. Thus, education is an act beyond the action. An act disrupts the action: its purpose, direction, and self-regulation. An action can be the object of a feedback, whereas there is no feedback available in the act when it occurs. In this article, I defend the idea that there exist teachers who are subjected to their acts but at the same time aware of how these acts may impact their students. Teaching is symptomatic: as a constant working out of the unconscious, it disturbs the effectiveness of a self-regulated action.